Search - Pergolesi - Stabat Mater / Ricciarelli, Benedetto Marcello Orchestra (Jubilaeum Collection) on DVD

Awful

Chris | South Africa | 07/18/2000

(1 out of 5 stars)

"After being disappointed with Rossini's Stabat Mater in the Jubilaeum 2000 series, I was hopeful that Pergolesi's would be better. Alas this is not so. The audio is perhaps the worst I have yet come across. The accoustics are terribly flat and dead, and sound as if the performance was recorded in a padded cell and not the Basilica Santa Maria degli Angeli in Rome. The audio selection is Dolby 5.1 and 2.0 but I noticed that each of the two sopranos had her own microphone and they looked as if they were just small mono models. For much of the time their voices came mainly from the front and rear right speakers, so I changed my seating 90 degrees to the right and listened that way for a while. There was a distinct improvement in what had been a non-existant stereo image! I can only conclude from this that the channels have been mixed wrongly. On track #6 the level of the blond soprano's voice was so low at times as to be barely audible above the orchestra!I'm really sorry I can't give a better review. My recommendation is to give this one a VERY wide berth and spend your hard earned cash on something else."

Some of the other concerts in this series are excellent

L. Gowen | concord, CA United States | 11/27/2004

(1 out of 5 stars)

"I would not purchase this recording based on the reviews it has received but I have purchase other recordings in this series and they are excellent, of the highest caliber."